The Week in Words: The will to be great; shooting the birds

A Surface tablet computer getting a trial run in Shanghai early in the week. PC's, noted one analyst, aren't dead yet.
A Surface tablet computer getting a trial run in Shanghai early in the week. PC's, noted one analyst, aren't dead yet. (AP)
Posted: October 28, 2012

"What it really comes down to is if we still have the political will to be a great country." - Dave Cote, chairman and CEO of Honeywell International Inc., one of more than 80 CEOs pressing Congress to reduce the federal deficit by raising taxes and cutting spending.

"We shoot the birds as they go by." - Ace Ltd. CEO Evan Greenberg, while advising analysts to "stay tuned" as the insurer weighs more acquisitions.

"There's a very high bar for Surface that it's going to have to hit initially for it to have a real chance." - Rich Adduci, chief information officer of Boston Scientific, talking about Microsoft's new tablet computer. Adduci has already deployed more than 5,500 iPads to salespeople and other employees.

"The bottom line is Dell still sells lots of laptops and desktops. And when I go into any office, guess what's on the desk? It's not an iPad, it's a desktop." - Greg Estes, lead manager of the Intrepid All Cap Fund, who said investors are ignoring Dell, a company that generated $61 billion in revenue last year.

"They can't make enough [products fast enough]. That's a great problem to have. A lot of other companies can only dream of having problems like that." - Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu, who sees long-term upside for Apple Inc.

"We have the consumer to thank for keeping the economy above water." - Michael Feroli, an economist at JPMorgan Chase, after a disappointing report on durable goods led him and other economists to downgrade their forecasts for third-quarter economic growth.

"If you want to be a credible player in the restaurant industry, you have to have a great cup of coffee." - John Betts, president of McDonald's Canada, where the fast food restaurant will start selling bags of ground coffee.

"We recognize that some of our customers chose to fly other airlines during the summer, when our operational performance degraded." - United Airlines CEO Jeff Smisek, explaining that travelers stayed away, frustrated by technology glitches from United's merger with Continental.

Compiled from The Inquirer, Associated Press and Bloomberg News.

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